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The following morning it was pouring rain

The following
morning it was pouring rain. Peter drew back the curtains on his four poster
bed and looked around. Next to him was the bed that James had tumbled into the
night before; it now had all the curtains tied back. The bed had the comforter
drawn back over it but Peter could tell from all the lumps that the sheets were
probably still in disarray and the pillows were just tossed towards the
headboard. James’s chest lay at the foot of his bed and on top of it were
several textbooks and what appeared to be an empty messenger bag. However,
James was nowhere to be seen. Peter looked at the bed next to James’s and found
it in a complete state of disarray; the curtains were tied back but the
comforter, pillows and sheets were in shambles, there was a foot locker at the
base of the bed and robes, ties and books oozed from it and spilled out onto
the bed. Although Peter hadn’t seen where Sirius had wound up last night, he
was pretty sure that that was his bed. He couldn’t be sure though, as Sirius
wasn’t in bed either. A second later he heard noise coming from the small
bathroom the five boys would share.

“Potter, if you
don’t give me that hairbrush right now… like you could even do anything with
that ratty head of yours.”

“Sirius, if you
don’t leave me alone, I swear, I’ll drop your toothbrush in the toilet.”

“Give me my
hairbrush.”

“It’s going, I’ll
even flush too.”

“Don’t you dare
James!” Peter chuckled to himself and his eyes widened a bit when he heard a
flush followed by a fit of laughter. From across the room he saw a pair of
hands fumbling with the curtains around the bed. A bedraggled reddish brown
haired boy was trying to tie them back. Peter stood up, walked over and helped
him.

“Thanks. Can’t
quite think straight in the morning,” the boy muttered to him. “I’m Frank
Longbottom. Do you know who those two gits making all the noise are?” The boy
was swinging his legs out of bed as he said this.

“I’m Peter
Pettigrew. James Potter and Sirius Black are the gits I think you’re referring
to.” Peter walked to the other side of the bed to help Frank straighten out the
sheets and comforter. After this brief exchange, Frank began to root around in
his trunk for his clothing and Peter crossed back to his side of the room and
made his bed, rather lumpily and the comforter was crooked… but it was made. He
sat down in the middle of the bed, figuring it best to wait until Sirius and
James finished in the bathroom, rather than risking his own toothbrush
receiving an unwelcome bath. He looked over to the fifth bed in the room, the
one to his left. Its occupant was apparently still asleep and for the life of
him, Peter could not remember the boy’s name. James came out of the bathroom
still chuckling a minute later and, not looking where he was going, smashed
into Frank.

“Oh, hello. I’m
James. Nice to meet you.” He stuck his hand out and Frank, still looking
extremely disheveled and slightly confused, muttered something along the lines
of “Frank Longbottom, nice to meet you” and shuffled off to the bathroom,
bumping into the doorframe on his way in.

James ran his hand
through his hair, “Hmm, clearly not a morning person. Hey, Pete!” He jumped
onto Peter’s bed. “Ready for classes today? I can’t wait. We get to take
classes in Transfiguration. I hear it’s really hard, but I’m sure I’ll be able
to do it. Mr. Ollivander told me my wand was especially good for it when he
sold it to me.” Peter just stared back blankly; while he wasn’t necessarily not
a morning person, he’d never met someone with so much energy right away before.
A second later Sirius came flying out of the bathroom.

“Not much of a
morning one, is he?” Sirius said with a gesture towards the bathroom door. Just
as Peter had thought he would, Sirius dropped a towel into the already chaotic
area near his bed.

“I’m not so sure
Pete is either,” James said as he smirked and got off Peter’s bed to go sit by
his own and rummage through the schoolbooks sitting at the end.

“Well, alright
then, so it’s me and you and Pete here and then there’s Frank… who’s the other
person we’re stuck with for the next seven years?” James asked, looking over at
the bed with the closed curtains.

“Hmmmm,” said
Sirius tapping his chin, “Shall we wake him up? I mean, it’d be a shame if he
slept through breakfast…” He had a certain glint in his eye.

“Oh yes, such a
shame. Care to be an aide, Pete?” James said as the two began to advance on the
bed with the closed curtains.

“Oh no, leave me
out of this,” Peter said, he then quickly gathered up a towel, toothbrush and
hairbrush and made a beeline for the bathroom.

“On the count of
three then, Sirius?” James asked. Sirius nodded. James cocked his head.
“Three.” The two sprang through the curtains yelling “Wake up, wake up,
sleepyhead!” “Time to get up!” and various other nonsensical phrases. All of a
sudden there was a loud growl that even caused Peter and Frank to look up from
the sinks in the bathroom.

“Just so you
know,” Sirius popped his head into the bathroom, “dorm mate number five is clearly
not a morning person.”

A few minutes later the four boys left their dorm to head down to
the Great Hall, figuring that their fifth roommate would prefer to have a bit
of a lie in.

A few minutes
after the last footsteps retreated down the steps, the curtains to the fifth
bed parted and a small brown haired boy crawled forward on his knees to tie
back the front ones. He was in a particularly bad mood since two of his new
roommates had just attacked him out of a dead sleep. He looked around and saw
that the room was deserted. Climbing out of bed, he reached over to his trunk
marked “Remus Lupin” and grabbed his robes and uniform and wandered into the
bathroom. It wasn’t big. There were two toilet stalls, two shower stalls and
three sinks, but it still would work for five of them. For the first time the
boy smiled; he was a part of something. He dressed quickly and thought about
heading downstairs. He realized that he should apologize to the two boys who
jumped him and warn them that he was definitely not a morning person.

Remus neatly made
his bed and closed his trunk. Then he walked out to the stairs, closed the door
and descended into the common room. A few people were sitting around, but he
made his way over to the portrait hole. He could see the girl who’d been
muttering about battling a werewolf the previous evening talking to two other
girls as they made their way to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the
girls’ dormitories. The memory amused him. He climbed through the portrait hole
and looked around, realizing he wasn’t entirely sure how to get to the Great
Hall. He started off down the hallway and made a left at the fork. A few feet
later he realized he’d found the library, but that was of no use to him at the
moment. He turned and nearly ran into a girl who was wearing a Ravenclaw
uniform.

“Do you know where
the Great Hall is?” he asked.

She shook her
head, “I’m looking for it too. I have no idea how I wound up here. I must’ve
walked past it at some point. We can look together if you want?” She looked
over to him.

“Sure. My name’s
Remus Lupin,” he said and looked over at her, starting off down the hallway.

“I’m Trixie
McGonagall.”

“Like the
professor?” he asked.

She smiled.
“That’s my Aunt Minnie. Except I have to call her Professor McGonagall while
we’re here. Are you in Gryffindor? Well, I suppose that’s a stupid question, I
mean you are wearing Gryffindor robes.”

“Yea,” he
answered. All this talking so early in the morning was getting to him, but he
couldn’t exactly ditch her until they got to the Great Hall. “You’re a
Ravenclaw?”

“Yup, my aunt is
the Gryffindor Head of House, so I was hoping to be a Gryffindor, but Ravenclaw
is good too. I heard you have to be pretty smart to get put there. My house won
the House Cup for the last three years, but the Gryffindors beat us for the
Quidditch Cup last year. Anyway, that’s what one of the third years told me at
the feast last night. Do you play Quidditch? What’s your favorite team? I want
to be a Chaser someday on the house team, I hope anyway.”

Remus had no idea
how to respond. He’d lost track of which question was which five questions ago
and had very little interest in Quidditch. Fortunately, at that moment, the two
of them rounded a corner and the Great Hall came into view. “Great, we found
it, well… I’ll see you later, Trixie.” With that he ran off to go find a seat
at his table.

He looked around
and spotted one of the boys who’d jumped on his bed, the one with the messy
hair. He was sitting with two others, a boy with blond hair, whom Remus thought
was named Peter, but wasn’t entirely sure and another boy whose name escaped
Remus entirely. He glanced around for Frank, whom he had sat with at the feast
last night, but saw him sitting with his sister and some of her friends, and
while Remus would’ve rather sat there, he went over to apologize for snapping,
or had it been growling, he couldn’t even remember anymore, at James and the
other boy.

“Hi, can I sit
with you guys?” The three faces peered up at him.

The blond one
responded immediately, “Of course.” He moved over a bit to give Remus some more
room.

Remus looked up.
“Sorry for growling at you this morning. I’m really not much of a morning
person. My mother says she’d rather wake up a rabid dog while covered in dog
food than me.”

Sirius looked up
from the porridge he was eating, “I can sympathize with her.” He and James
smiled and held out their hands. “Sirius Black.”

“James Potter.”

Remus shook both
their hands. “Remus Lupin.”

Peter turned to
look at him, “Peter Pettigrew, but my hands are covered in jam so I think it’s
best to stick with nice meeting you.”

Remus laughed,
“Nice meeting you.” He pulled over a piece of toast to butter while Peter wiped
his hands on his napkin trying to get all the jam off. A few pieces of paper came
their way and James grabbed them.

“Schedules. Niiice.
Here Pete… Sirius… and Remus.” He handed them their schedules, took his own and
passed the pile to the girl next him. “Yes! Double Transfiguration right after
breakfast! I can’t wait.”

Remus looked at
his schedule. “Potions this afternoon, I always though that would be a fun
class.”

Sirius and James
both made faces. “Yea, it might be a fun class if they didn’t have the spawn of
all evil teaching it. Professor Nackle is head of Slytherin House. He totally
favors his own students and hates Gryffindors,” James said.

Remus and Peter
both made faces. “Great,” muttered Peter, glancing down at his schedule. “At
least the rest of the day is free after that… well, I guess if we want to be on
time, we should get going.”

“Professor
McGonagall teaches that, doesn’t she?” asked Remus. James nodded. “I heard
she’s a bit strict. I met her niece on my way down here today.” At the mention
of a girl, Sirius’s head perked up.

“Her niece goes
here, eh? Is she cute?” he asked.

“She wasn’t ugly,”
Remus answered without much thought.

“Bloody hell…”
James shook his head, grabbed his bag of book and started towards the door.

“Whatta ya mean,
bloody hell? I mean, Remmy here could be getting pally with a real babe. It’s
necessary to find out these details…” Sirius was saying as he grabbed his books
and a piece of toast to follow James.

Remus and Peter
looked at one another. It seemed to them that they’d suddenly reached a point…
to get up and follow the other two, mocking Sirius’s girl crazy attitude or to
sit there and finish their breakfast. Remus gave Peter a quick smile and
grabbed both their book bags. “Can’t exactly let those two lunatics loose on
their own, can we?” he said and handed Peter his bag.

Peter shrugged. “Guess that wouldn’t be wise,” he said, and
accepted his bag. The two headed out of the hall to catch up with the other
two.

~*~*~

“You know, they
really need maps for this place,” Sirius said as the four of them headed down
the wrong corridor yet again. They were late for Potions again and Nackle was
really going to let them have it. On their first Monday, Peter had somehow
accidentally melted his cauldron while brewing a really easy potion. Nackle had
been convinced they’d been screwing around and taken ten points from
Gryffindor. To top it off, when the cauldron had melted, the potion had wound
up all over Remus’s feet, which had then proceeded to swell to nearly five
times their normal size. It had taken both Peter and Sirius to get him to the
hospital wing while James stayed behind to clean up all their cauldrons. Their
following lessons hadn’t gone much better. Even more to their dismay, Nackle
clearly favored his own house, which they had Potions with. His favorites
seemed to be Malfoy and Snape. One look over to their little corner though, and
it was clear Malfoy had no idea what he was doing. Snape would sit there and
whisper help to Malfoy for the entire class period and Professor Nackle
couldn’t care less, but if he heard the tiniest whisper from Remus to Peter
he’d dock points from Gryffindor quicker than you could say “Quidditch”.

“That’s not a bad
idea, Sirius. I’ll get right on it. I’m sure a map for a school where the
passages and stairways move and there are hidden doors and walls at every turn
would be ever so easy to chart,” Remus said sarcastically. They were on their
seventh week of classes. The four of them had quickly and easily fallen into a
tight friendship. It was already becoming evident in classes that James, Sirius
and Remus were highly intelligent, amongst the top in the year. A few people
were beginning to wonder what led them to hang out with Peter, but none of the
others in the group realized that people were thinking that. The four of them were
quite comfortable together.

“I think you’ve got
something there, Remmy,” James said as they finally found the entrance to the
dungeon.

“About time,” Peter
mumbled under his breath and sped up to get to the Potions classroom. The four
entered and took seats as far back as possible, Remus and Peter sitting next to
James and Sirius.

“Cauldrons out. Quickly
now. Today you will all be brewing the Horeshound Potion. Then take a flask and
stopper it and leave it on my desk when you’re done. The instructions are
written on the board,” Professor Nackle said; with a sweep of his wand, the
words appeared on the chalkboard. “No talking. This is a test. You may begin.”

The whole class looked
like they’d been hit in the head with a brick. Suddenly there was a scurry to
grab their cauldrons and collect the necessary ingredients. Twenty minutes or
so later, Remus, James and Sirius had thick purple potions brewing. Sirius
looked over to where Remus and Peter were working and saw Remus concentrating
hard on his own potion without much trouble. However, Peter’s potion had turned
a sickly green. From where he was sitting he couldn’t help Peter without
getting them all in trouble. He kicked James under the table, who looked up, a
bit surprised, but when Sirius made a small gesture over to where Remus and
Peter were sitting, James knew what he was getting at. He thought for a moment,
leaned down and dug into his bag. He drew out what looked like a Gobstone and
flung it at Remus, causing him to drop a handful of gillyweed into his
cauldron. Remus let out a startled gasp as his potion suddenly began to bubble
over the top and turn a violent shade of pink. He looked around quickly and saw
James make an “I’m sorry” kind of face and gesture towards Peter, who was now
trying to get both his and Remus’s stuff out of the way of the overflowing
cauldron. While all this was happening, Remus didn’t notice the large bubble
growing in the middle of the cauldron until it popped all over him.

James and Sirius both
quickly stoppered a flask of each of their potions and ran them up to Professor
Nackle’s desk, as they were sure they were going to have to escort Remus to the
hospital wing again. Sure enough, by the time they looked up, both Peter and
Remus were covered in a strange mixture of pink goo and what appeared to be
turnips growing out of their skin. The two were howling in pain and Nackle was
paying no attention to them at all. James and Sirius grabbed one of their arms
each, careful to avoid the goo, and led them towards Madam Pomfrey.

With Remus and Peter
safely deposited in the hospital wing, James and Sirius went back to the
dungeons to clean up all their stuff. By the time they had lugged it all back
to their dormitory, the two boys realized they were going to be late for History
of Magic and set off down the hall at a run.

“I told you we need a
map of this place,” Sirius said.

“You may have something
there, but we really don’t have time to draw one up right now,” James said,
panting as they turned around at their fourth dead end. As they were going
around their fifth corner, they ran into Peter. “We were wondering when you two
were going to ‘turnip’.” James and Sirius burst into gales of laughter.

“Oh shut up,” Peter
mumbled, still a slight tinge of purplish pink to his skin.

“Where’s Remus?” Sirius
asked peeking into another door. “What is this?” he asked almost indignantly.
“I’m looking for a classroom and I find a room with a small pond and six ducks
walking around. Why is there a room like this??” He made a disgruntled
noise and slammed the door shut. They continued on their way. “So Pete, where
is Remmy?”

“Still in the hospital
wing. Madam Pomfrey kept him. He was looking kind of sick anyway… besides being
covered in turnips and all…” Peter trailed off. “I think it’s this way,” he
pointed left at the point where the corridor forked. The group followed him and
found he was right. They slipped into their seats as Professor Binns droned on,
not even noticing their entrance.

“Is he ok?” James
leaned over to ask Peter, midway through the lesson.

“I don’t think Binns
was ever ok, I mean acute lack of a personality is definitely a terminal
illness,” Sirius said as he leaned forward from behind Peter.

“Not Binns,” James
whispered. “Remus, you said he didn’t look well.”

“I’m sure he’s fine. He
got hit by a lot more of the turnip potion, or whatever the heck that was, than
I was,” Peter whispered back the two of them. “I’m sure he’ll be fine in time
for double Transfiguration, he hates to miss classes.”

The rest of the class
continued uneventfully, other than the occasional thud of a student’s head
hitting the desk when he or she fell asleep. When the bell rang, Peter, James
and Sirius headed down to the Great Hall and when they were nearly there, James
suddenly changed directions.

“Where are you going?”
Peter asked.

“I want to try and find
the hospital wing, check on Remus,” James said, peering at the three different
staircases which all lead in opposite directions.

“It’s this one, James,”
Peter said and beckoned for the other two to follow him. They followed Peter
through the twisting passages out into a long narrow one until Peter opened a
large door on the left side. “Madam Pomfrey?” he asked tentatively.

A large woman with her
hair pulled back in a tight bun came bustling forward. “Oh what have you
three gotten yourselves into now?” she nearly shrieked. The infirmary
was bustling; apparently it was a busy day.

“Nothing at all, Madam.
Honestly,” Sirius stepped forward and the other two stepped back, knowing that
when it came to charming disgruntled adults, the job was best left to Sirius.
The same way the other two had known to step back and follow Peter, who had an
uncanny sense of direction. Sirius continued, “We were just hoping to visit our
friend Remus, he came here with Peter over there earlier today,” he gestured at
Peter, “we thought he might like to copy our History of Magic notes. He gets a
little worried when he misses a class.”

“Oh, well then. That’s
nice of you boys. He’s in the last bed on the left side. Go on then,” Madam
Pomfrey presented them with a rare, small smile. The three boys headed down the
isle and pulled aside the curtain around Remus’s bed. He was dozing off and the
three boys could see he still had the same strange tint to his skin as Peter,
but he was paler and looked like he was actually sick. When the curtain rattled
a bit more for the three boys to go in around the bed, Remus opened his eyes.
He looked surprised and displeased at the same time.

“You guys shouldn’t be
here. We have class. I’ll see you all sometime tomorrow probably,” he said.

“Tomorrow? I’m fine
already. What’s keeping you here?” Peter asked and sat down in the chair next
to Remus’s bed.

“Yea, come on Remmy.
You’ll miss Transfiguration,” Sirius said and plopped down on the bed.

“Speaking of classes,
here are my History notes, if you want to copy them.” James held out a
parchment with his messy handwriting and doodles all over it.

Remus smiled. “Thanks,
James. I’ll copy it later.”

“So why are you still here?”
James asked and sat down next to Sirius. Then he pulled himself all the way
onto the foot of the bed, turned and sat cross legged looking towards the other
three.

“I’ve got a cold or
something too. The turnip potion must’ve made it worse,” Remus said quickly.
“You should all go, or you might catch it.”

“Well that’s easy, Madam
Pomfrey can just give you a Pepper-Up Potion and you’ll be fine. Tastes really
nasty and you smoke from the ears for a while… but it works,” Sirius said.

“Oh ummm… we tried
that, so I guess it isn’t a regular cold…” Remus was interrupted by the bell.
“You guys have to go to class. Take good notes, so I can copy them later, ok?”

Sirius gave him a
strange look, “Yea, sure, Remmy. We’ll check on you again later, alright?”

“Nah,
don’t bother. I’ll be fine really.” Remus looked after the boys as they left.

//

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